...Most of the damage, especially in the last three losses, has come in one quarter of each game.

The bright side of that for the Bobcats is that they might be three-fourths of the way to being a much more competitive team.

“That’s what kind of give me hope, as far as this team,” head coach Mark Harriman said, “there’s times that we look pretty good, and we’re doing a nice job, and it’s still … about that consistency that we don’t have. Certainly we’ve got to play very, very well to win, but I think we can definitely play a lot closer than we have.”

This is especially true of the past two games, during which Bates was derailed by being outscored 23-7 in a quarter.